D. Nixon: CS 12 > Week 1

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Computer Science 12


Week 1




Saturday, January 28, 2012



Course information

Required textbook:
  1. Jerry Waxman's course notes – available at the Copy Center under Gino’s Pizza, across Kissena Blvd from QC
Recommended textbooks:
  1. Exploring Microsoft Word by Grauer and Barber
  2. Exploring Microsoft Excel by Grauer and Barber
  3. Exploring Microsoft Access by Grauer and Barber
Relevant websites: Grading scheme::

The grading scheme will be flexible, giving you the best of a few possible formulas, but in general you can count on the following weights:


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General tutorials on Microsoft Word 2007/2010

Below are some general tutorials on Microsoft Word, with an emphasis on matters relevant to writing academic papers:


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Excel 2007/2010 tutorials

General tutorials on Excel 2007:

On the use of formulas:

On cell references, absolute vs. relative:


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HTML tutorials

Here are links to some HTML tutorials:


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Tutorials on miscellaneous topics covered this week

Editing HTML files using Windows Notepad:

Note: Editing files in Windows Notepad can be done reliably only when filename extensions are visible. See the pages below on how to make filename extensions visible in Windows 7.

Filename extensions in Windows:


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Assignment 1 (preparing to write a paper; topic selection due Wednesday, February 8, 2012)

Obtain Jerry Waxman's CS 12 lecture notes, available at the Copy Center under Gino’s Pizza, across Kissena Blvd from QC. During the next week and a half, skim through the first third of the notes (up to but not including the lectures on Excel) and choose a topic for the paper that you'll be asked to write. The paper may be on any of the computer-related topics mentioned in the notes EXCEPT the Microsoft products that we'll be teaching you about (Word, Excel, and Access).

Email me, by no later than Wednesday, February 8, about the topic you have chosen.

Then reasearch the paper using Jerry Waxman's notes plus at least one other printed (offline) source plus at least two websites. Send me email containing a list of your sources by no later than Wednesday, February 15.

The first draft of your paper must be submitted by no later than the beginning of class on Saturday, February 25. Submit it via Blackboard. You should also bring a copy of your first draft with you to class on that day (either on a flash drive or by emailing it to yourself). We will show you how to use various Microsoft Word 2007/2010 features to make the paper look nicer.

Your first draft, which must be finished before our class on February 25, should be at least three pages long and must include at least one quote from each of your four sources, and must have at least three sections with headings. We will then show you how to do citations, footnotes, bibliography, and table of contents, using Microsoft 2007/2010 features which make these chores very easy.

The final paper itself, which will be due later in the semester, should be six to eight pages long, double spaced, with a font size anywhere between 12 and 15. The final version of the paper must have a table of contents at the beginning, properly formatted footnotes (which will place themselves automatically at the bottom of the relavant page), citations (distinct from footnotes), a bibliography, and at least three other sections whose titles will appear in the automatically generated table of contents at the beginning. The paper must be an original paper, not plagiarized. (Warning: BlackBoard includes the ability to search automatically for possible plagiarism.)

Your first steps will be to choose the topic, gather sources, and tell me about the topic and the sources by emailing me at the following address (not any other email address of mine, please):

dnixon-cs12@nyclocal.net


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Other important information, needed this week


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D. Nixon: CS 12 > Week 1